Stage 19 Overview

Lourdes to Laruns

Friday, July 27, 2018

Stage Summary

Stage 19’s 200 km route from Lordes to Laruns is one last chance for GC contenders to make up time in the mountains. With C1 The Col d’Aspin and HC Col du Toumalet, and Col d’Asbique, this will be a big test. An off day could be catastrophic—but good legs could make all the difference in the final results.

Stage 19 showed a peloton feeling the effects of this year’s incredibly tough tour. A battered Peter Sagan yo-yo’ed off the back of the grupetto before finding a enough fellow sufferers to ride with and making the time cut. Taylor Phinney crashed somewhere on course and finished covered in blood. Nairo Quintana, after enjoying the win on stage 17, struggled to maintain contact today.

Still, the race’s leaders proved why they’re in the lead, with a flurry of late-stage attacks on the misty, narrow Col d’Asbique indicating Geraint Thomas, Primoz Roglic and Romain Bardet all have some fight left in their legs. Chris Froome looked less sprightly, and was dropped by the leaders with a grimace on his face before chasing painfully back with the help of his loyal teammate Egan Bernal. Still, he lost some significant time today and was bumped off the GC podium by stage winner Primoz Roglic.

Tomorrow’s individual time trial will be the last chance for challengers to unseat Geraint Thomas, who now leads the race by 2:05 with Tom Dumoulin in second and Roglic in third.

Stage Analysis From Best Bike Split

For the pure climber GC riders, stage 19 will be the last chance to try to put much needed time gaps on more powerful riders before going into the stage 20 individual time trial. With a C1 Climb and two HC climbs there is more overall elevation gain on this stage than any other in 2018, however the gradients are not overly steep. Whichever team is defending the yellow jersey will be quick to try to shut moves down.

That being said, the run in to the finish is technical, and we have seen Chris Froome (Team Sky) take advantage of these situations in the past to add even just a little bit of time going into the ITT. The stage sets up well for a long range solo attack, or small group break away victory. The final climb features a series of climbs and technical descents with the steepest sections at the beginning. An attack 7 km into the final climb and smart pacing through to the finish could set a rider up for stage victory—if they are willing to take some risks on the 20 km descent to the finish.

Click on the predictive race plan below to see how key factors might affect the results from this stage.